2012 - Ram 3500 on 2040-cars

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Pickup sales may hit 2M units for first time since 2007

Even as fuel prices creep back up, trucks are still a hot item among new-vehicle shoppers. To see how popular pickup trucks still are, you don't have to look any further than how much effort automakers put into the continual one-upmanship of their trucks. Backing this fact up, USA Today is reporting that the segment could top two million sales this year - a total not matched since 2007, though still far from the pre-recession, three-million-unit levels.
Through August, the Ford F-Series continues to be the segment leader with almost 500,000 units sold, but the Chevy Silverado (328,269), Ram 1500 (234,642), GMC Sierra (122,232) and Toyota Tacoma (110,293) are all seeing at least 20-percent sales increases, helping to account for around 1.44 million truck sales so far this year - not including possible outliers like the Suzuki Equator and Chevy Avalanche.
This year alone, General Motors has completely redesigned its fullsize trucks, Ram and Toyota have significantly updated their offerings, the next-gen Ford F-150 will be out next year and Nissan is promising an all-new Titan around the same time with an eventual Cummins diesel under the hood. It would seem, then, that truck sales are poised to continue their upward trend.

2015 Ram Promaster City will work for $23,130*

Need a cargo van, but nothing too big? Fiat Chrysler Automobiles could have the answer in the form of its new Ram ProMaster City. Essentially a domesticated version of the Fiat Doblo, the ProMaster City joins the Ram family as the baby brother to the larger ProMaster (née Fiat Ducato). But if you've been wondering how much one will set you back, Auburn Hills has now announced pricing.
The 2015 Ram ProMaster City Tradesman Cargo starts things off with a $23,130 MSRP, plus a $995 destination charge. Upgrade to the Tradesman SLT Cargo and you'll be looking at $24,655, while the passenger-oriented Wagon and Wagon SLT start at $24,130 and $25,655 respectively (again, plus $995).
The base delivered price of $24,125 makes the new Ram ProMaster City more expensive than its competition, with the Nissan NV200 the cheapest in the segment at $21,605, the Chevy City Express starting at $22,950 and the Ford Transit Connect starting at $23,125 (all prices including destination fees).

Ram ramping up MI truck production, does deal with Texas Rangers

Thanks to a host of upgrades at the Warren Truck Assembly Plant in Michgan, Ram Trucks is boosting production of the already strong-selling Ram 1500 to build 28,585 more of them a year. That works out roughly to five more per hour, or an additional 100 per day. The major key to the improvements was redesigning 353 assembly workstations to allow employees complete their tasks more efficiently. According to Ram, the expansion was done to meet growing demand for the pickup.
These kinds of comprehensive changes can't happen over night, obviously. From the end of 2013 through the summer shutdown in August, the Warren Truck plant received automation tweaks in the body shop and upgrades to the color booths in the paint shop.
However, the biggest shift was working with "UAW-represented team leaders and operators" to examine every workstation for efficiency improvements. In that analysis, the company identified and altered over 100 problems that could have caused an injury. What really helped to boost the production rate so significantly was moving about 300 parts, or grouping them into kits for better ergonomics, and eliminating walks to grab tools. Once everything was done, about 63 percent of workers at the factory got updated training.